A/N: This chapter is my longest yet, so please REVIEW!
General Dodonna nervously paced the catwalk on the bridge of the Star Destroyer that had once been know as the Obliterator, since renamed the Kenobi after the Jedi Knight who (presumably) died fighting the Empire. All the efforts of the past three days were about to come to fruition. Or disaster.
The Kenobi slid smoothly out of hyperspace, and into the Fondor shipyards.
Just as she had been ordered to do.
No one suspected a thing.
On the bridge, General Dodonna stood on the catwalk facing the window. He, as well as rest of the bridge crew, was dressed in an Imperial uniform, lest some hotshot fighter pilot get close enough to get a peek at the bridge.
Before him was a plethora of ships, civilians, scurrying around the shipyard, covering the planet of Fondor with shifting black dots, like flies moving in front of a flatscreen projector.
Next to him, the holoprojector beeped. He pressed the button, and two quarter-sized images of the captains of the Merciless and the Saber, two Imperial-class Star Destroyers, both less than a year old and equipped with the best weaponry the Empire's scientists could offer.
"Greetings, Captain Mast."
Dodonna killed a smile. He had tasked his best slicers to setting up the transmitter so that it displayed Dodonna as the late captain to the person on the other end of the link.
"We are now moving to flank you. Please prepare to receive us onboard your ship."
"Thank you, Captain Traffer. I will order my crew to prepare for you arrival. I'll be waiting."
He glanced at the chrono. Assuming that Imperials hurried over fast enough, he should be able to capture them. An added bonus to a particularly rewarding operation.
"Get a welcoming party down to the hangar."
"Yes, sir."
Ten minutes later-"Sir, hangar reports that they have both officers in custody. Their transports are secured.
Dodonna glance at the chrono. 20 seconds left.
"Fire."
At once, green bolts of lethal energy shot into the unsuspecting Star Destroyers, followed almost immediately by a barrage of proton torpedoes. The sleek, dagger-shaped Star Destroyers, caught with their pants (and shields) down, their men lax and not at battle stations, failed realize what was happening until it was too late. The Kenobi pulled away from the burning hulks of what had once been the symbol of terror to the people of Fondor.
And lying within them were the bodies of 20,000 men, not all of whom had served the Empire willingly.
"Sithspawn!"
"What is it, lieutenant?" the commanding officer of the Golan I Space Defense Platform asked.
"The Obliterator just blew the Merciless and the Saber straight to hell!"
"My gosh…" the officer breathed, staring at the hulking wrecks through the viewport. The sentiment was echoed, in various other forms, by those of the crew who had managed to recover their wits.
The com buzzed. The officer manning the console pressed it and listened to the transmission.
"Commander, we're receiving a message from the Obliterator. The ship is under the control of the rebels and they'redemanding immediate surrender," he reported in a panicked tone. "What should we do?"
The Commander considered his options.
"We fight. We're stalemated as far as firepower, but we have more shields than they do."
"Yes, sir."
"Tell them that."
The officer relayed the message into the mike.
Two seats over, the officer watching the scanner looked up nervously. "Sir…"
Dodonna watched as the captured squadrons of TIE fighters, many of them slaved to the few that were actually piloted due to the lack of sentient pilots, swarmed out of the hangar.
He glanced at his chrono. 3, 2, 1… he glanced up. 0.
About 5 squadrons of Y-wing fighters, 11 rebel transports, seven Corellian Corvettes, at least a dozen Corellian gunships, and scads of souped-up freighters shot out of hyperspace immediately behind the Kenobi. As he watched, the corvettes began launching 'ugly' fighters, spaceships created by welding broken pieces of crashed or scrapped fighters together. They were usually used by smugglers.
As were these. Only three of the Corvettes were controlled by the Rebels. The rest were part of Car'das smuggling fleet, hired as mercenaries, a role they were well suited to, most of them being dropouts from the Imperial military academy.
And paid in stormtrooper armor, always a valuable commodity on the black market, from the Obliterator's stockpiles.
"Sir, all 5 of the Golans have refused to surrender."
"Send the message again."
A pause. "Sir, 4 of the stations have surrendered, on condition that we take them with us when we leave."
"Tell them that we will do so as soon as they power down and lock their weapons systems. Which one hasn't?"
The officer tapped it on his scanner.
"Order all forces to concentrate their fire on that platform."
The communications officer relayed the order.
"Sir, TIE fighters entering sensor range. They're probably from the garrison on-planet."
"Order the uglies and our own TIEs to engage them."
As soon as the order went out, the lighter fighters veered away from the Kenobi, their electronic signatures on the scanner display an almost solid mass.
And on the other side were the Imperial fighters, outnumbered almost 2 to one.
Talon Karrde, having been granted command of, oddly enough, Talon Squadron for his role in making such a profitable deal for his boss, twisted the stick on his ARC-TIE, as this type of ugly was known-it was made by fusing the wings of a TIE fighter onto the body of an old ARC-170. Of course, no two of the craft were exactly alike-it depended of how much of the wreck could be salvaged. The welding of scrap metal into places with missing pieces gave the fighters a not-so-pleasing appearance-hence the term 'ugly.'
The computer beeped-he was now in range of the Imp fighters. Simultaneously, the two sides began trading fire.
Passing the Imperial fighters, Karrde swerved around for another pass, launching a proton torpedo from the makeshift torpedo shaft welded to the bottom of the craft-really a hand-held rocket launcher loaded with a proton torpedo and linked to the ship's computer. He saw it hit before he was immediately absorbed in the ensuing dogfight
"Order the ships to remain immediately outside turbolaser range until I say otherwise," Dodonna ordered. He wanted to give the fleeing civilian ships time to get out of the battle zone.
A few seconds later, the space between the Rebel fleet and the doomed Golanwas clear-the civilians had wasted no time in leaving.
"Move into range and commence fire"
The ships moved a within range, and the firefight began.
The airwaves were filled with calls for assistance, announcements of kills, and the screams of pilots caught in burning craft. Karrde swerved to bring an Imperial into his crosshairs. Squeezing the trigger, a blast from his gun turrets, also haphazardly strapped under the ship, reduced the TIE to dust.
"Talon, leader, you have one on your tail!"
Sithspawn. Karrde jerked left, or to port as the wackos who did this stuff for a living called it. "Berry, can you get him?"
"He's swervin' too much!" his gunner replied.
"Talon two, can you get him?"
"Hold on, one, I'm trying to get a lock," his wingman replied.
The computer screeched at him as the TIE began pouring energy into his shields.
The Kenobi had moved so that the tip of the giant wedge that was her body was pointing laterally to the Golan, exposing the massive amount of turbolasers that her straboard side housed to the Golan. All around her, the Rebel fleet was pounding the Golan with turbolaser fire.
Finally, the section of shield the fire was directed at collapsed under the strain. A Star Destroyer would have simply flipped his ship upside down (compared to the other ships-there is no up or down in space) to expose a fully charged section of shield to the barrage, but the stationary Golan lacked that particular option. The lasers and torpedoes, which had before stopped several meters short of the defense platform, began smashing into the massive station.
"Lock acquired-got him!" Talon two screamed over the radio.
That's a relief. Karrde still couldn't believe that he was now fighting alongside people who only days before had held blasters to his head. How they had managed to capture that Star Destroyer was beyond him.
He looked around. The Imperial fighter squadrons were smashed, the survivors limping back to base. The Rebels-and Car'das smugglers-had suffered casualties, but his computer, when queried, reported that only 7 friendly signatures had vanished from the scope. Almost before it had begun, the dogfight was over. Karrde turned back toward the capital ships, followed by the rest of the fighters.
Explosion after explosion bracketed the doomed Golan, its batteries resolutely returning fire. But the station was doomed.
Finally, the station vanished in a fiery explosion, having suffered massive damage. Nothing was left but the metal frame the platform had once rested on.
Dodonna did the math in his head. The dockworkers should have had time to get away from the construction docks by now.
He could see the main reason for the attack through the Kenobi's viewport-a dozen Imperial-class Star Destoyers, almost completed, but with one fatal flaw-
None of them had had their weapons or propulsion systems installed yet.
They were sitting ducks, completely defenseless and unable to leave the docks they were being constructed at.
The Rebel fleet moved towards the construction docks.
Within five minutes it was all over. Nothing was left of the ships but a few random scraps of metal floating around. The docks, with the heavy machinery needed for the construction of the ships, lay in ruins. Every target in the shipyards with the Imperial logo painted on it had been utterly and totally gutted.
Their work completed, the victorious Rebels vanished into hyperspace.